“Most of us think of Pinterest as the place to go for recipes, inspirational quotes or fashion tips. But, filmmakers are increasingly turning to the social media platform to fund and promote their projects. Pinterest is also a great resource for filmmakers to easily access everything from production tips, information about festivals and funding resources. Click the titles below to visit the Pinterest boards.”

“This week we go into another motion tool of storytelling, THE CRANE. This device has been around for decades. Allan Dwan has been credited with the first dolly shot and the first crane shot. He devised a system for D.W. Griffith on Intolerance (1916).

I have used cranes that I ride, like the Apollo and the Zeus from Chapman, as well as ones that are operated remotely. Bob Richardson, ASC actually prefers to ride his crane and has done so for many years. He loves being one with the camera, as well as the feel of the fixed arm.

“Fixed arm vs. Telescopic arm”

The arsenal of cranes can be overwhelming at times. Every month in American Cinematographer, there is a new crane that goes 50’, no 80’, no now 100’ and it is motion controlled, repeatable. So many options!”

“Anamorphic lenses are specialty tools which affect how images get projected onto the camera sensor. They were primarily created so that a wider range of aspect ratios could fit within a standard film frame, but since then, cinematographers have become accustomed to their unique look. This article discusses the key considerations with anamorphic lenses in the digital era.

OVERVIEW

Two classes of lenses are typically used in production: spherical and anamorphic. Spherical are more common and are the assumed lens type unless specified otherwise. Spherical lenses project images onto the sensor without affecting their aspect ratio. Anamorphic lenses, on the other hand, project a version of the image that is compressed along the longer dimension (usually by a factor of two). Anamorphic lenses therefore require subsequent stretching, in post-production or at the projector, in order to be properly displayed.”

“Thanks to David Branin and Karen Worden of the great indie film show Film Courage for having me on recently. Given this website covers a lot of the “latest, greatest tools” in filmmaking, this particular interview question was a perfect chance for me to make it abundantly clear what my stance — and by extension the stance of nofilmschool — is when it comes to “gear addiction” and what tools filmmakers “need to have right now.”

“Information about what’s happening with the new DRAGON sensor from RED has been scarce over the last few months, even as the company made a big splash at NAB 2013, upgrading camera sensors right on the show floor. We’ve heard a lot of impressive stats about the sensor, like a native 2000 ISO, 16 stops of dynamic range, and 6K resolution, but many will remain skeptical until we start seeing actual moving images from the camera (even as the still images have looked impressive). From a recent posting on REDUser, it looks like those will be coming sooner rather than later.

Here is an excerpt of what Jarred Land posted to REDUser (emphasis is mine):”